Feedback on GMG referrals - After the communities thoughts

LNFS on 09/08/2012 - 09:51

Hey guys/girls,

Those who know me will know that I post a lot of Greenman Gaming links with heaps of referral codes on them.
These are all OzBarg members, I was trying to be fair with the GMG referrals etc and every post I make more people message me to be on the list. It was a bit shorter before but someone made the comment that without usernames it is meaningless as you can't reward a particular ozbarg member, so adding that took up more room.
I agree it is getting large now… it is a good deal though, $2 for both parties involved and it adds up. I got a free game out of it.
:)
I was hoping to start a trend where any GMG deals get all ozbargs members referrals added but only a few do it (Those who do it, you guys rock!)

Not sure what to do… some want it to remain, others want it gone. Don't want to burn bridges with the ozbarg community…
What are your thoughts? Should I stop? Should I continue?

Thanks
-Noel

Gaming

Comments

  • Moderatorscotty on 09/08/2012 - 11:26

    Okay. What we aim to do — whole thing is in my head at the moment but just need to sit down and code it up…

    • Enable some sites to be "affiliate-able", for example GreenmanGaming and Amazon are the two main ones.
    • When you go to GreennmanGaming page on OzBargain as a user, you'll then see a place where you can put in your referral code. Put your code there and save.
    • Whenever there's a deal on GreenmanGaming coming on, posted by an affiliate, we will generate two out-bound links on the clickable image:
      • The "normal link", i.e. something like /goto/12345
      • The "referral link", i.e. /goto/12345?referral=1
    • People clicked on the first link go straight to the GMG page. People clicked on the second link will then use one of the referral code.
    • We will "randomly" choose a referral code from the code submitted by other members. However the chance is weighted more to those who have submitted good deals. So if you have submitted more GMG deals with good votes, then your referral code gets higher chance to be picked. Alternatively OP of the deal gets more chance.

    After that has been implemented, people then should no longer post affiliate/referral links. OzBargain would randomly pick the code for our members.

    This might work a bit differently with coupon code referrals (iHerb.com for example). Maybe we will also pick random code to be show.

    • NFS on 09/08/2012 - 11:44
      +3

      That is a really good idea! I like it.

    • johnno07 on 09/08/2012 - 22:29

      This is exactly what I was thinking earlier today, but didn't think that you guys could implement it. Shame on me for underestimating you! Great idea :)

  • Zak on 09/08/2012 - 13:31
    +2

    Scotty this sounds great!

    Noel, I for one, think the fact you go to all this effort on each GMG post is great. You definitely deserve kudos IMO.

    If people don't like it, I don't see why they can't just scroll past and ignore it. IMO, the potential benefits (free money for OzB members) definitely outweigh the drawbacks (a very minor annoyance for some people – they maybe have to scroll their mouse wheel for an extra half a second in a few posts).

  • NFS on 09/08/2012 - 13:40

    Thanks for the support Zak
    :D

  • Elijha on 10/08/2012 - 19:12
    +1

    For the referral code 'collection' wouldn't it make more sense and be easier to have a "affiliates links" section under the "My Account Area" for members to add in their codes. It would serve as a useful way to see what affiliate links I have setup - and what links / sites are supported also.

    Form a coding point of view I'd be interested in how you calculate the weighting .. and actually would love to know how you auto generate thumbnails as well.

    • Moderatorscotty on 16/08/2012 - 18:54

      This should be available early next week (finger crossed).

      Yes when more shops are supported there will be a dedicated section under My Account. Currently I am only planning to roll out for GMG first to test the water.

      As for weighting, I am just going for easy approach first by counting number of deals posted from each user against that store and have reached some minimum votes (like 5, to remove trivial spams).

      Thumbnails — that's one busy Firefox instance working in the background taking all those screenshots :)

  • dirtybird on 23/08/2012 - 16:57

    I hope Ozbargain has their own affiliate link to be used with these deals.
    Then as a non profit organisation you can add excess funds raised to go towards Ozbargain donating to charity.
    http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/71559

    This would an excellent way for members/non members of the site to show our great appreciation of the service you provide.

    It wouldnt reduce the bargain and users will NOT have to pay more - instead Amazon/Greenman/etc will pay Ozbargain and its support team a small amount in the form of a commission which can be used to further develop the site we all use for sharing the latest deals. Anything extra can go to charity or all of it can go to charity.

    Having the option of an Ozbargain affiliate link would allow us to show our appreciation for the work and efforts put into this site.
    If the Ozbargain affiliate link was heavily weighted to always be added in addition to the others we could make a decision ourselves as to which affiliate link, if any, we would like to use.

    Making a purchase and being able to have Amazon technically donate to charity (via Ozbargain) at the same time is win win for everyone.

    Its clear the idea of Ozbargain and its members contributing to charity was well received by all so I think this is and excellent opportunity that the majority would support.

    • Moderatorscotty on 23/08/2012 - 17:43

      Actually OzBargain is not a non-profit. I've registered a company around it (for a bit of protection), and by default companies are "for profit" :) Just that we are running on thin profit, and giving back to community is a Good Thing :)

      I am still trying to write up the documentation for this feature. It's already on the production site just that I've not turned on. OzBargain DO have affiliate links for non-logged in users (see this wiki page), and for sites that we are going to support user-submitted referrals:

      • If a user is not logged in, when clicking on the link he gets OzBargain affiliate code
      • If a user is logged in, when clicking on the link he gets random user-submitted referral code
      • In both case that user can click on "Direct link" to bypass and go straight to the page.
  • dirtybird on 23/08/2012 - 18:12

    Well I hope in future you consider including your own affiliate links as part of the offers on a permanent bases along side the random link. (For those logged in or not)
    That will mean you need to expand your affiliation, Amazon, GMG etc.

    You only need to look at the support given to the charity voting to see that there is potential to donate a lot more.
    Probably not getting much exposure in the Gaming forum tho.

  • NFS on 23/08/2012 - 20:50

    I don't think that will help, the reward given is a $2 credit, not real world money and not something usable on any site other than gmg… Unless the is bargain guys are into games and looking for their own purchases, which is totally cool.
    :D

    • dirtybird on 24/08/2012 - 01:23

      Well a while ago there use to be competitions where users of the site had a chance to win various things for most popular post or just random selections.
      If the vouchers are transferable then it could be used for that (if revived), after X amount had been collected. Or something purchased from the vouchers.
      Someone like nanoronline who posted the Android Markets 10 days of offers that got 748 +votes would have been a worthy winner.

      Maybe the competition revival is for another thread, another time. :)

  • Moderatorscotty on 30/08/2012 - 12:53

    Please see this discussion in the Announcement forum.

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